City Council - Regular Meeting

About this easement? I don't see any so that will be closed for the moment and, just in a few minutes, we'll open up city council meeting. Thank you. Evening everybody and welcome to Jonesboro City Council meeting. This is 02/17/2026.

It is 05:30, and we're gonna go ahead and start. I'll lead us in a pledge allegiance, and then doctor Charles Coleman will lead us in invocation. I

pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

Heavenly father, we thank you for allowing us to be here for to trust and to abide within our stewardship of the city. We ask that you blessed this whole city and all this about. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Alright. Council members, if you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot for being present. Nay. Nay.

All right, we do have nine present this evening. We do have quorum. So next, we'll move on to special presentations. Council, I think it's very imperative that, again, you brought it to my attention early on. I think we need to have more special presentations in front of city council, making council aware of things that we're doing, and also things that you have voted on and supported, when it comes to moving forward with the city budget.

We've made some really large decisions in the last five years when it comes to health insurance. The rising cost are becoming prohibitive for so many citizens across our community. And so I want to say first of all, when we bring it to council, the engagement piece that you all have is very important. And again, I want you to know what we're doing behind the scenes as well with our department heads. Duane, if you want to come forward and you can make an introduction here of the members that are present this evening.

I felt tonight it's very important for you to see the results of your decision and ours that we brought to you, the reflection of what we have done now in over a year being on a self serving program. That was a big step for the city of Jonesboro. And as you know, it's always a priority of this administration to put our employees' needs first, and health care is one of those. It's very important. A lot of times, we can't provide other needs services, but with the health insurance participation levels that council approves every year in our budget, that allows us to be competitive for our employees and helps them in the pocketbook, and they can get the best health care so in turn they're able to be at work.

So Duane, if you would, feel free to go ahead. You have the floor and I appreciate counsel's attention.

Yeah, I thank you also and I think it's be very beneficial to everyone to see how the plan has been evolving as we started. I think you're gonna be impressed with the numbers and information and I'm pleased to have the Hatcher Group with me tonight along with ADP as well because now we have the self-service on our mobile apps and things like that for employees. So I'll talk a little bit about that but I won't talk anymore but I'll turn it over to Greg Hatcher and let him explain about the plan.

Well, think the first thing I'd like to do is just talk about healthcare cost in general even before we get into the details because for a person that's not dealing with it every single day, it's like why are the costs going up and up and up? It's like you're just running against a headwind all the time. So there's several reasons. One, when we

19.

A a very

alcohol, recovery with limit.

We It used to have all these limits. So any time you add to a plan more coverage, it's going to cost more money. I always use the example that you can go buy a Camry, just the base Camry, or you can buy one with leather seats, with a spoiler, with a sunroof, with cool tires, and it's always going to cost more. So there's no argument that the additional coverages that we added were really important and certainly take care of Americans better. But I think what Americans weren't ready for is the compounding of that year after year after year.

Then you have guys like me, baby boomers, the aging of the population. So today, society for every one person that's retired, we have four working to pay for them. In the next ten years, it could be they're showing the ratios could be two to one. Just the population is aging. And as we age, we use more health care.

And then I think everybody knows that we have more and more procedures. It used to be when I started in this business, somebody had a heart issue, they had a quadruple bypass. Today, has a heart issue, most of the time they get a stent in their home in a couple days. It used to be that people died from those things. I have personally witnessed a heart attack playing pickleball with a guy that they said ninety eight percent chance he think year.

Increases, it isn't

fun. A So if you look back question. That's fifteen years ago, how many groups did we have fully insured versus self funded? It would have been almost all fully insured except the big boys. Okay, the really big groups today, groups at 100 lives, 150 lives are going self funded because they're trying to battle those headwinds.

So one of the things that people don't realize is when we passed health care reform, we added those coverages, but we did not address prescriptions. It was not part of health care reform. They were it was just completely ignored. So today, if you're fully insured, every time there is a prescription drug claim, there is a drug rebate that goes under the table to the insurance company. And I say under the table not illegally, but just that you can't see.

So the pharmaceutical companies are paying drug rebates to that vendor. That's gotten to be quite substantial. It also puts the vendor in a position that do they really care if we're using high drugs because the bigger the higher the cost of the drug, the more the drug rebates. So at some point, prescription drugs will have to be regulated. Today, the drug companies give all kinds of free drugs out to the doctors and they even take care of people that are really, really sick at certain income levels.

But part of that is, part of that's nice and part of it helps them with Congress to not be messed with. So it's really a delicate dance. I don't have a solution. I've been doing this for forty four years and there's no just hey, this is what you do and it'll fix it. So what we do is we do the best that we can each and every year.

And when a group goes self funded, they're taking the first step to do the most that they can possibly do to help. So if we look at these numbers, on first page, when you guys were fully insured with Blue Cross Blue Shield, your claims totaled $10,000,000 Do I need to hit something? All right. So your claims totaled $10,000,000 and you paid in $6,000,000 in premium. So I think everybody whether you've ever dealt with an insurance renewal or not, if you pay in $6,000,000 and you have $10,000,000 in claims, you're going to get hammered.

And you did, you got hammered with a 50% rate increase. We tried to make some adjustments, got it down, but the reality is just negotiating is never going to change anything. We stayed self funded with the exact same carrier. I mean we're still with Blue Cross Blue Shield. It's just a difference in how you pay. I like to use the example of you can build your house on a fixed bid. The builder builds it. If they make a profit, they keep the difference. Or you can do it on a cost plus basis. You pay as you go.

Well, in the insurance business, it's always better to pay as you go because when you have a good year, you didn't spend the money. So I say to people, if your claims are this much, they're going to set the premium here, right? If your claims go to here, they're going to set the premium here. But what happens when you have a good year here? They leave the premium up here.

When you're self funded, you never paid it. So we decided to make a move based on that. And you have to realize that right now in Jonesboro, we have a very serious situation that the hospital is not, say, in the UnitedHealthcare network. Okay? So why do you see more battling between hospitals and the insurance carriers on the reimbursement rates?

Because it makes a difference. The hospitals are struggling to make it. But when they give a pay raise to a hospital or a doctor, up goes the cost at the same time. And what I want to tell you is that it just keeps getting passed on. So every time carrier pays more, which may be needed, I've been involved in a bunch of those negotiations. But take Baptist and United, that was the last one. They gave an increase. When that occurs, then the claims go up. The client gets the increase. Then the client has to deal with, do I charge my employees more or do I raise the deductible or do I shift them to Medicare?

Do I shift them to the insurance exchange? So we are battling those headwinds with your plans. So to the numbers, if you go self funded, you have several advantages that you don't have fully insured. The first is the premium tax. So there is a 7.5% premium tax in Arkansas on every fully insured premium dollar paid.

Some of that goes to the federal government to fund the exchange. Some goes to the state insurance department. Some goes to PCORI, which is Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute to solve dread diseases. But when you go self funded, do an end around and you don't have to pay tax anymore on claims administration or claims and claims is the biggest part of the equation. You still have to pay the tax on the reinsurance portion, which is if a big claim, say, goes over $100,000 they eat the balance.

But if I can reduce the taxes on 80% of your cost, 80% of 7.5% is 6%. So you save the 6%. The next thing is those drug rebates that I said that go under the table to the carrier. When you're self funded, you are the carrier. You are the provider.

Now those drug rebates go to the city. And when we went self funded, we got $671,000 worth of drug rebates that weren't going to the carrier. Now make no mistake, Blue Cross still gets to keep some of it because it's still their PBM, but the majority of it you're getting, okay? Each year we'll take a look at that. Is it worth switching to another PBM where you can get it all, but then your admin fee with Blue Cross could be higher?

It's kind of an offset. There's more benefit flexibility when you're self funded, okay? If you want GLP-1s covered, we could do it. Now, right now, I don't have a single group that has covered GLP-1s. But the point is that any we can tailor our plan to the way we want it. When you buy fully insured, you have to buy a cookie cutter plan that was filed with the state insurance department. If you want to go up on your deductible 5% from fifteen hundred sixteen fifty. You could do it self funded versus couldn't do it fully insured because they would they don't have that deductible file. So much more flexibility in the benefit design. Okay.

The big one is we pay claims as we go. Instead of sending that premium to the carrier on January 1 and they put it in their bank account and they earn interest, okay? It sits in our bank account and we earn interest. And more importantly, when we have that good year, we get to keep the money because we never sent it out. A lot of people talked about Blue Cross had a tough year last year where they lost money.

They did, but they didn't talk about the investment earnings on the billions of dollars they have sitting there waiting, which counts towards your net income. Here's a big one, access to your first of strong 19. We We insured due to HIPAA, a but also due to the fact that carriers don't always want to give you all that data because you can use that data against them to negotiate or negotiate with other carriers, they won't give you the data that shows you where your large claims are, what drugs everybody's taking so that you can manage those. When you're self funded, that is your data. You get a look at it.

We can set the drug formularies to be smarter. So one of the things we're most most happy about with City of Jonesboro in the first year is a typical group, a person uses 1.5 prescriptions for every insured member. So you have about 700 members. So you guys use about more than 1,000 prescriptions a month. When we went from fully insured to self funded, we now could see those prescriptions and we could script source them.

We could go out of the country. We could go to a better place to buy them. And out of your 1,000 plus prescriptions, we only looked there were 36 that were really impactful, and we script sourced 36 prescriptions, only 36 out of 1,000. And we called those members up and said, hey, if you'll do this mail order, if you'll take your prescription this way, we'll make you have no copay, no deductible. It's a 100% payment because by doing this, it saves the plan money. It saved $1,600,000 on those 36 prescriptions.

You wanna say that again?

Yeah. Please. So those 36 prescriptions, we saved $1,600,000 on just by being able to get them in a different spot. I'll give you an easy example. If you can sing the jingle on on TV, it's a really expensive prescription.

So like SKYRIZI is my favorite. Okay? Jardiance is pretty good. But if SKYRIZI is $27,000 quarter quarter we had saved 1.6. But if you're fully insured, they don't care. They're getting the rebate. The higher the prescription, the bigger the rebate. And I don't want to I know I'm in a public forum, but I'll say it to anybody at any carrier, they have no incentive to do that. Okay? So we're self funded.

We spend a lot of time trying to manage those claims. Okay? Just for the record, we sell tons of Blue Cross fully insured. This isn't about Blue Cross. This is all carriers deal with this. Just able that. To

able

And

a And 's the highest of it's been in, I don't know, fifteen, twenty years. I don't remember it ever being that high. Why was it so high in the previous year? Because of the Transparency Act. So the Transparency Act, you know, it's like we have this perfect storm. We had health care reform that added all these coverages, okay? That was when Obama was President. Then Trump came in and he put in the Transparency Act. Depending on which side you're at, you can blame them both, okay? They weren't meaning to do bad things, but it kind of works out that way sometimes.

So the Transparency Act said that the consumer should be able to see what the doctor or hospital is charging them. I have never had a customer call me and say, you help me get online and see what the doctor is charging for my knee replacement? I want the cheapest one. I want the guy that's got a sale this month on knee replacements. No, they want the best guy. They just want to know who's the best it. They don't care what the cost is because their cost is deductible, coinsurance and out of pocket. It doesn't matter if they charge $49,000 or $25,000 it's going to cost them the same deductible, coinsurance and out of pocket. But guess who can see all the prices? All the providers can see the prices.

So if you were a hospital, you didn't know what the other hospital was getting paid by the care, but now you do. And if it's lower than what you're getting paid, and what if your hospital is even better? You're going to want more. And even if you're the best hospital in Arkansas and you're getting paid the most, did you know Arkansas reimburses our providers and hospitals? We're 50 out of 50. So they're getting the lowest reimbursement rate. So they have a pretty good argument when they're like, hey, we're not getting paid enough. We're barely making it. Why is somebody in Texas getting paid 50% more? Why in Louisiana are they getting paid?

Name your state, they're getting paid more. So when they could now see this because all that was confidential data before, they have an argument. And the thing that I like to tell people to really illustrate it, tomorrow, Mayor, go print the salaries of all the city employees, you know, or in your company. Go put it on the front door and see how many problems you have, okay? Because somebody is going to say, I do a better job than them.

What they're getting at, I should get this. That's kind of what the transparency act did and it bumped up trend, okay? Now, the hospitals and doctors and the insurance companies have been signing contracts generally two or three years, so it'll slow it down a little bit. But the transparency act is here to stay. Okay? It's here to stay. And healthcare reform is here to stay. We're not going to go back to no pre existing, okay? So health care is a crazy time. So desperate times, desperate measures, you're looking at everything.

So but to think that our claims dropped with that trend and all that going on, definitely the management of being able to be self funded and watch it. And we have to even watch it more. We have to watch it even more. At the Hatch Agency, we're looking for other ways to even get more data to help you. Your drugs dropped from $3,280,000 during that year from 24,000,000 to 25,000,000 It should be going up, but it went down because we could source those drugs.

Especially drug management is key. I think you'll see a lot more coming on drugs. Can we buy our drugs in Canada? Can we buy them in The UK? So nobody ever wants to hear from an insurance agent equation, more than we used to and everybody can see what the price is.

The It was designed so you could see the price and negotiate down. But the only product in the world that nobody cares what the price is, is healthcare because somebody else is paying for it. And it's the only product in the world. Like we don't have a right to eat steak every night. We don't have the right to drive a Cadillac every day. But we do have the right to the very best healthcare. That's the way we think in America. You don't have the right to the nicest anything except health care. And frankly, it is the most important thing because try not having your health and see how important it is. So any questions?

Counsel, I think too, I want to remind and Greg, if I'm not incorrect on this, the year that we had the increase of 25%, council approved that we assist in that for our city employees because that was a significant rate increase and it was at 50 at one point. You were able to negotiate that down and then in the budget that year, we were able to absorb some of that for our city employees.

Yeah, and a carer will not continue to lose money on you. They're going to get that number right. So it was better proactive and take control of ourselves. I always tell people when I move them self funded, this is not going to fix healthcare. Nothing fixes healthcare.

It's the best option for healthcare. It gives us 13% advantage every year because we save the 6% in taxes, we save the 3% average on drug rebates that we're losing, we save the 3% underwriting gain that an insurance care normally gets to keep and we make 1% of our money. That's 13% and that's before we start managing the drugs. If we can manage the drugs and manage the claims, like I'll give you a perfect example and you tell me when you want me to stop, okay? But let's say you're fully insured.

When you're fully insured, you're just driving along, you're asleep at the wheel, you're not paying attention to anything, it's somebody else's money. As soon as you go self funded, it's our money, it affects us. Let's say an employee, and I just had this happen, an employee gets in a car wreck, it's a terrible car wreck, he's in the hospital for a long time in the group now, they can't pay them anymore and they got to put them on COBRA. Well, normal HR, hey, let's just put them on COBRA. Well, if you're self funded, you're like, wait a second, wait a second, the guy is not working anymore.

If I put him on COBRA, it's going to run up the claims on my plan. What about the insurance exchange? He's not making money right now. He gets subsidy on the insurance exchange. Should we see if we can get him a policy on the exchange at a cheaper rate than the COBRA rate, which is better for him and better for us? The answer is yes. So our job and your job is to keep your eyes open. Are there ways to help both sides? And I'll end with this. How do I look?

Do I look like I'm claim waiting to happen next year? If I gave you $800 a month, make it $1,000 would you insure me? David, would you take me for $1,000 a month? That feels good. Most people won't take me. They take them one month and they're like, okay. That's what it's like to insure somebody today. No medical questions. Don't get a no. It's kind of risky. But I'm gonna have what I'm gonna have this year. Hopefully nothing. But we're just fighting over who's gonna pay for it. If we put me on Medicare, we shift it to the government. If we put me on the exchange, we shift it to the exchange.

If Blue Cross has to pay more to the provider, it got shifted to Blue Cross and they're gonna try to shift it back to you. And since you're self funded, if Blue Cross pays more of the provider, really you're paying more of the provider. So it's one big battle. If we can get it at the if we can script source our drugs, we shifted it away from our care making money to it's one big battle over who's going to pay for it. That's what's going on with health care and that's why it will always be controversial. But hopefully I've helped you understand a little bit more about it and how we can better control our plan.

Greg, first of all, thank you very much. Counsel, this has been a work in progress for at least like four years and we've taken steps every year, general steps, but we've gotten to this point. Greg, how do we compare with what you see other self funded programs in Arkansas per se?

So I want to say one thing before that. Most of the time I'm telling my staff, do not sell cities, counties, self funded plans because there's too many decision makers. There's people everywhere and they might not understand it. It's just easier to stay full insured. But this situation was a little different.

We had a mayor who understands insurance a little bit. We had really good HR team and our CFOs. They got it, so we felt comfortable doing it. A city and a county has a lot of blue collar workers having to work on the streets. It's a pretty good gig that we tend to keep our people. They don't have high turnover. So sometimes the average age is higher. You also have men. The older a man is, the more claims they have. So how do you compare to the other?

Certainly, way you manage the plan and the way we were able to do the script sourcing, that's better than most. Rates lower than the market? No, probably about average. But you're not an average group. You're an above average age and risk type group. So we're managing it. I will say that most groups that go fully insured to self funded do not have their claims go down in year one. They're just they're trying to avoid trend. They're trying to manage it. So I was real pleased with the fact that it actually you know went down.

That doesn't mean anybody is going to be happy. It doesn't mean we're going to avoid rate increases, but we're going to try. And the best thing we can do is go hire a bunch of 22 year olds, but that doesn't always work right so. Thank you. All right thank you.

Counsel are there any questions?

I would just like to make a comment.

Sure.

The insurance plan paid for me to participate in a Virta weight loss program and after years of failed attempts, I started on this program January 3 and I've lost 22 pounds and my blood sugar, blood cholesterol numbers are normal now and this is something that a plan that I can go with and stay with and be not miserable. Thank you.

That's a really good point. You know, the other thing we can do that I don't address is get healthier, right? Work out more, eat better. And Dwayne is always on us what wellness plan can we do? So HR is all on that, but yes, we can all do the best we can do.

Thanks for sharing that and there's many others in the room that could share the same story. So that was a good add on. I'd like to take a few minutes just to introduce the team, let them tell them about their role and ask them to keep it short. But these are the ones that I work with on a daily basis.

Hey, counsel. My name is Jacob Still. I'm one of the healthcare consultants at the Hatcher Agency that works directly with Duane and his team pretty much daily, multiple times a day managing the plan and also kind of being the point of contact for a lot of employees as they're navigating healthcare because healthcare is definitely something that's frustrating when we're having to handle that and the employees, it's usually it's a pretty down day when they're having to go and get a procedure done or trying to understand bills and work through that process. But I'll keep this quick. A few years ago, me and Duane started talking and him and his team have had a real big push on wellness programs.

And when you're fully insured and you're trying to do a wellness program, it's like playing darts blindfolded. You're just throwing hoping it sticks on the board and hoping that works. It's very hard to pinpoint exactly what you need to do and what you want to do. So this year, we had three goals, increase the amount of people that got their wellness visit, which is your preventive visit, which you get for free under the plan. Have cancer program in place for anyone that has cancer diagnosis and then something that can control the specialty medication.

Led by Duane, this year for the first time, he partnered with NYIT and Arkansas State and did on-site wellness clinics. We had two of them this year, one outside of City Hall here in the parking lot and then one outside at Public Works. And because of that, we had more people get their wellness visit this year than ever before, which is good because a lot of people were able to get their levels checked and see their health risk and notice things before they become a serious chronic condition. And that's part of containing costs like what Janice was saying, control what you can control. And that was a big part of it.

The second thing is through the program that the city has, we have a cancer program that anyone that's had a cancer diagnosis and since 2023, we've had over 80 cancer treatment claims hit the plan, which is, you know, obviously, you always hope that that, you know, number goes down. Sense we're of patient advocate that walks with them through the entire process and gives a them second opinions on every single thing because when you have cancer, it's a very scary thing and a lot of people don't really like to navigate that by themselves. The most important thing about this program, we have a handful of employees that are utilizing it now, is there's a series of follow ups with this program that make sure that the employees feel secure about any future treatments or anything that might come up on the horizon. And then the third thing that we've obviously talked about is managing the specialty medication, program that we put into place. And Greg talked about it allowing people that make below a certain amount of income get directly from the manufacturer in an extreme discounted price.

So these employees weren't having to pay as high out of pocket expenses for the specialty medications, which help them as well. And now that we have the data in about twelve months, looking forward into 2026 and 2027 and 2028, looking at adding some virtual healthcare, virtual PCP, virtual mental health counseling, and virtual urgent care, where employees will be able to access healthcare if they choose at no out of pocket expense virtually, which will be big for the police and fire department and really anyone, especially people with children. Don't want to bore you to death, but just kind of wanted to give an update on some of the plans that we have put in place with Duane and his team and that they're gaining a lot of traction. So thank you for allowing me to be here. I'm going to pass it over to Don Weiner.

He's with ADP and he's going to kind of talk about some of the technology the city has put into place. So we're done talking about insurance now. I hope I didn't bore everyone to death.

One How Thank many football games did you center in a row?

Well, 53 starts, which is the most ever. I was originally from Germantown, Tennessee, then I came to Jonesboro in 2016 to play football. I did six years, I red shirted and then had the COVID year. So I had six years before it was really cool. And played a lot of football. My quarterback was Lane Hatcher, Greg's son. So we were actually roommates which was a cool story and kind of found my family here in Arkansas. So it's been a blessing.

Appreciate you, Jacob. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Don Weiner. I represent ADP. For those of you all that may not be familiar with ADP, we're a leading provider of payroll and HR technology and services. We pay every payday one in six Americans and probably 80% of the Fortune 500 companies use us in some capacity.

We were originally engaged a couple of years ago from Duane after counsel approved the project for a new system because the HR team in Duane were struggling with multiple and how employees interacted. And because of this, it created a lot of manual processes. As you can imagine, when you have different systems reporting from all these disparate systems can be challenging. And as a matter of fact, any team been do for for

HR, and And

staff would respond accordingly. And it had grown to the fact to the amount that they were having 100 employee inquiries every week. And their current technology had no self-service capabilities, no way for employees to either through their desktop or through their mobile phone access information, whether it be on their pay stubs, their W-2s or other HR information. So Duane and his be be to to

we're to do

And and Chris and so for a three person team they were strained and at capacity and had done the best they could. I think Mayor you had the question for Greg, how do we compare to other cities and we get that question all the time at ADP. What do you recommend ADP in terms of staffing levels and support and infrastructure for an organization like this city that's close to 800 employees? There's an industry benchmark out there that was developed by what they call SHRM that stands for the Society of Human Resource Managers that recommends that any organization or company have one HR person for every 100 employees, and your team has three. So you can imagine they were pretty strained I'm proud to say Thanks

a lot. I know where that's going.

Yeah, and I'm proud to say that due to ADP's technology and our services along with the great service and support that Greg and Jacob and the Hatcher team has, we've been not only able to streamline things but relieve a lot of the administrative burden that Duane and his team have had to deal with. I would like to recognize besides Duane and Chris and Kelly also Steve and Christy and Paige from the finance department that have done a great job rolling their sleeves up and putting a lot of effort behind it. And Mayor again on behalf of ADP, we're grateful for the relationship we have with the city and we look forward to build upon the success we've had so far.

Well, and you mentioned it well. We do a whole lot more with a lot less and the commitment that our city employees do, they love their job and Steve, you and your team again, I'm glad you mentioned it because I was going to. They work well together, HR. Again, I'm very proud of you guys and I appreciate the hard work you've done and we've got to continue this momentum moving forward and educate our employees. Thank you for your time this Thank you. You bet.

Mr. Mayor, counsel. How is everyone? I'm Scott Allison. About five months ago, the city implemented a program called benefits me for its employees. It gives those employees the opportunity to go online purchasing store and to purchase up to 70,000 different products. What's unique about that? Well, so 62% of Americans today are living paycheck to paycheck. Check. Many of them are struggling with their credit.

This program goes gives them that opportunity to go purchase the products that they need. The city payroll deducts the cost of the items for them and it means that that employee can go and take care of their family with the products that they need. Now, we've I said we've been doing this now for about five months. We have 27% of the employees that are signed up and using this program. Doesn't mean that they're all purchasing through the program.

It simply means they're viewing the program on a monthly basis. Well, what's this program really do, Scott? From the company's perspective or from the city's perspective, it's strengthening their benefits package. It's giving them something unique that no one else can offer. It also improves the employer retention.

When I have an opportunity to go to my to to take care of my family with a program where if I've lost all my credit and god forbid so many people have out there today and they can go to an online purchasing store, they can purchase up to 70,000 different products with Best Buy, Ashley Furniture, Ace Hardware, products that we purchase on a day in, day out basis. Is that good for them? Well, sure it is. It's giving them the same opportunity that people that basically have lost their credit will never have. So again, we're increasing the employee's morale.

We now have 25% of the people that are signed up. We just started a few months ago. That number will increase. And then we're reducing the employees' financial stress because believe you me, we have lots of employees that are working more than one job. They're coming to work tired. If we can take the burden of financial stress off them with a program like this, we think that's very beneficial. What's it doing for what's it do for the employee? Well, with this program, there are there is no interest. There's no hidden fees. The city is payroll deducting the cost of those items from the employee's paychecks.

They know exactly what's going to come out if they need a laptop computer for their children, if they need a washer dryer. It's very simple. When they open, when they go into the store, they have a credit limit in the store. It's all limited. What they can spend, they basically purchase that item and it's sent directly to their front doorstep and it takes there to take care of their family. So you have instant access to thousands of products. You have no credit check whatsoever. Your job is your credit and this program's being very successful right now.

Thank you, Scott. Sure. I appreciate it. Dwayne, you have any closing comments? I

just wanna thank y'all for taking the time to listen to kinda what we're doing on the healthcare side. And I think we're making positive moves. And I appreciate the team that supports us. And they have a lot to offer the employees. I appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate y'all coming.

Be careful. All right counsel, that's the end of special presentations. Now we'll move on to item number five and these are items on consent agenda.

Move to adopt unless there are any changes to be noted.

Second. Do I have a motion and a second on the Yes. Request that item 20 five-one 168 be removed. Okay. I'd to amend that motion.

It's already been

aired. All right. Is. One six eight, any other?

It's already off, one six eight.

It is, resolution on, okay. One

more, 20 six-ten.

Right. It is I'll amend my motion to reflect resolution 20 six-ten.

And 20 six-eleven. One one.

Second on that? Second. We do have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? We'll move on to resolution twenty six zero one zero.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to accept a permanent right of way at 3505 Stella Drive for the purpose of constructing and maintaining pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements, whereas the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas desires to accept the following described right of way for the purpose of constructing and maintaining pedestrian and infrastructure improvements. The property description follows. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council for the city Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized to accept the right of way described above.

Move to adopt. Second. Do I have motion on

the floor to adopt? Any discussion by council? I don't see any. Anyone council chambers? If you would, please state your name and address.

Yes. Patty Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road. I just noticed on this, you guys, that it is a right of way purchase, and there is no draft order form on this showing the price that it was given by the city on this. I looked back at the public works meeting, and there's no amount that is shown for how much we're purchasing this right away. So I'm just kinda concerned why it wasn't because the one right above it on Johnson, there's one and that's for 39,000. So I don't know why unless I missed it, but I do not see a purchase price on that. So I was just wondering how we can find that out.

Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Lyde, if you do have an answer to that question. If not, we can get back.

This is right away we obtained from Arkansas State University. There was no cost. Thank

you very much. Anyone else in the audience? I don't see anyone. If you would, cast your ballot. And that resolution does carry. Next we'll move on to resolution twenty six zero one one.

Resolution to waive competitive bidding and authorized purchase of streetlights, whereas the city of Jonesboro mayor's office has determined that I don't even know what that says. R A B A L E D 52 five t five two slash p c t LED post top light or equivalent light fixtures and r a b p r four dash one one dash one five d two or equivalent light poles to be the city standard for all pedestrian friendly and pedestrian priority streets. And whereas the local distributor can stock these fixtures as part of their normal inventory and can maintain an adequate supply of replacement parts as needed. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, the specified light fixtures and light poles are available from Tech Electric of Jonesboro, Arkansas per the attached quote. Section two, due to the need to be able to access this lighting and replacement parts quickly for the preservation of public safety in the community, the city council, in accordance with the terms of ACA section fourteen fifty eight three zero three, hereby waves the requirement of competitive bidding and directs the purchasing agent to purchase the above described light fixtures and light poles for the process set forth above.

Move to adopt. Second. We have a

motion on the floor and a second. Any questions by counsel? I don't see anyone. Anyone in the audience? If you would, please state your name and address.

Yeah. First, thanks Craig for, explaining the one previous.

Name and address.

4108 Forest Hill Road, Pattylack. Thank you. On this one right here is noticed that there was no competitive bidding on this, but also too is that where are these, it says the streets, where are these 60 lights gonna be going and is who is gonna be installing these because they look like pretty nice

first 27 of the lights are going to be going on Huntington Avenue. They'll be going from Union Street West to Flint. So there'll be 27 lights there. The remaining lights, we've got few other projects that are still in development. We're getting a better price to buy them in bulk than we do just buying 27 at a time. So we're going to do this project. We're probably going to do Monroe Street with a similar lighting pattern and so that's what the other lights are for as those projects are developed, we'll have those fixtures ready to go. So we don't have to go through another wave competitive bidding process to get them purchased.

And the purchasing on bulk is

a little bit better pricing as well.

And so it was money that was in the budget this year to do these lighting projects as part of the street fund.

You.

And who's the for installation opens on March 5, I believe, fourth or fifth is when the bids will open. So I don't know who the contractor will be yet on it.

Thank you. All right, anyone else in the audience? I don't see any. Counsel, you would please go ahead and cast your ballot. And that does carry. Next we'll move on to resolutions not on the consent agenda and the first resolution is twenty five one six eight.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to condemn property located at 3806 Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas, parcel number 01 Dash 144272 Dash 16500 owner Holga Hernandez. Legal description follows, whereas the above property has been inspected and has been determined and suited for human habitation. Whereas all the stipulations have been met in the condemnation process to proceed with the condemnation of this property, and therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the city should proceed with the condemnation of the property located at 3806 School Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401.

Mayor, my understanding from the code enforcement is this property has recently sold and they've requested it be tabled. Is that correct Mr. Roper? Okay. Tabled indefinitely. Yes, tabled indefinitely please. Second that. Do you have a motion on the floor to table indefinitely? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right counsel, we'll move on to resolution twenty five thousand one hundred and six nine.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to condemn property located at 2410 West Matthews Avenue, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401. Parcel number 01Dash14313. O, 3143Dash101900. Owner George Hannah senior. Legal description follows, whereas the above property has been inspected and has been determined unsuited for human habitation, whereas all the stipulations have been met in the condemnation process to proceed with the condemnation of this property. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the city should proceed with the condemnation of the property located at 2410 West Matthews Avenue, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401.

Move to adopt.

Second. Do you have motion on the floor? Any discussion by council? I don't see any. Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well. If you would, please cast your ballot. That resolution does carry as well. Now we'll move on to resolution twenty five two one six.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas to condemn property located at 120 West Woodruff Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401. Parcel number 01Dash144073Dash24500. Owner Jonathan m Lyles. Legal description follows, whereas the above property has been inspected, has been determined, and suited for human habitation, whereas all the stipulations have been met in the condemnation process to proceed with the condemnation of this property. Now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas that the city should proceed with the condemnation of the property located at 120 West Woodrow Street, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401.

Vote to adopt. Second. We do have motion

on the floor. Any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? Scott, if you would please come forward.

Mayor, it should be noted that they did apply for a permit today, but we are gonna go ahead and go through the process. If in fact they do take it down within the time limit, then we will just not follow through with the lien.

Counsel, did you all hear that? Yes, I Okay, all All in favor, please cast your ballot. All right. That resolution does carry. Thank you, Scott, for the update. Next, we'll move to resolution 26,006.

Resolution requesting free utility services from city water and light for a traffic signal, whereas the city of Jonesboro is requesting that city water and light approve free utilities at the following location, 6002 U East Johnson Avenue traffic signal cabinet. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the city council for the City of Jonesboro, Arkansas that section one, city water and light be requested by this resolution to provide free utilities to the location listed above. Section two to permit such services to be provided without charge of city of Jonesboro hereby affirms to city water and light that the ultimate use of CWL utilities so provided is now and shall remain a use or purpose which the city is engaged in as part of its governmental or proprietary functions under authority to it by state law.

Move to adopt. Second. Do you have a

motion on the floor to adopt? Questions by counsel?

I would ask to be recused because my membership on the board of directors of CWM. Noted.

Anyone else? Okay. All right. Anyone in the council chambers? I don't see any. Counsel, if you would, please cast your ballot. That resolution does carry. Now we're on, let me see. Alright. Twenty six zero one two.

Resolution by the city council of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas authorizing the offer and acceptance to purchase additional right away on South Caraway Road for the purpose of the constructing and maintaining roadway improvements. Whereas the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas desires to purchase the following described right away for the purpose of constructing and maintaining roadway improvements. Property description follows. Sorry. Whereas an offer has been made and accepted to sell the above described property for the price of a $154,700, whereas the attached offer and acceptance will be executed upon the passage of this resolution. Whereas the funding for this purchase shall come from the capital improvement budget. Now therefore be it resolved by city council for the city of Jonesboro that section one, the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized to execute the documents necessary to effectuate this transaction.

Mayor, I got one change I need to make on this.

Amend?

Yes, motion to amend. So on the last whereas, I like that to be changed to the funding shall come from the capital revenue bond budget instead of just the capital improvement budget.

Motion is to amend that to revenue bond budget? Yes. Okay. A second. A second. No, got a second. Second. Okay. All right. So

is there can we get an opinion, is there any benefit to having it come from the revenue fund versus the capital improvement fund? I know it can come from either. Just want know if there's

So, and I apologize, sent out an email kind of like towards counsel about this, but the capital improvement fund actually houses the revenue bond funds because those are all capital improvements that are approved by the revenue bond. So while it says capital improvement fund, it's actually still it's always been revenue bond funded. I got that clarity after the last meeting. So doesn't really on the amendment, I mean, it's fine. But the revenue bonds are paying for this project and that's housed under the capital improvement portion of the budget.

But yeah, the clarity on that, it's there's no problem with that. Just want to clarify that though from the get go.

So Steve it could be documented either way, correct? All right, so initially it was fine as well.

Okay. So do we need the amendment?

Have a motion and a second on the You can keep discussing but then it's, we need to vote.

Right, any discussion by counsel? Anyone in counsel chambers? We'll go ahead and accept that amendment.

Vote on that.

Vote on that. Please go ahead and cast your ballot. Voice vote.

All in favor.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Now we got to go back. Okay. Any discussion on the original with the amendment? Anyone in the audience? If you would, please go ahead and cast

your ballot. Move to adopt. Second. You have a

motion to adopt. If you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot. Council. All right. Thank you very much. And that does pass. Next we will move on to items in new business. These are ordinances on the first reading. Ordinance twenty six zero zero five.

Move to suspend the rules and offer by Tyler Lowen. Second.

Do I have motion on the floor? All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed?

An ordinance to vacate and abandon a drainage easement located in Lot 5 R of the second edition of Block C, Southern Hills Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any. That'll move on to the next reading. Next, we'll move on to ordinance twenty six zero zero seven.

We suspend the rules and offer by title only. Second.

Do you have motion on the floor? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

In ordinance two men chapter one seventeen known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from r one to r s six for property located at 900 North Caraway Road as requested by Claus Property Management LLC.

Any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? If you would, please come forward, state your name and address.

Patty Lack, 4108 Forest Hill Road. This was at the MAPC meeting last week, and I have to tell you guys, I have been to lot of MATC meetings, and I've looked at a lot of them. The applicant did not even show up to the meeting to present. He didn't even show up. And what usually happens is when someone doesn't show up, you know, either Lanny or Daryl would say they're running late. They're gonna stay around. Although there was only one agenda on the item. They went ahead and passed it. You guys, this is not fair. This is establishing, you know, what was the point?

This person did not have enough common courtesy, and it wasn't important enough for him to show up to present it to all the MAPC. So I decided that I was gonna do a FOIA to find out if he even showed up to the premeeting on Monday at 03:00, and I did that. I have not gotten that. And then also too, I requested to get a copy of the tape. What they do is that they put their phone down in the middle of the table.

So I don't even know if they showed up there. But I'm asking you guys, is that out of, you know, common courtesy to the city, to the, you know, to all of us, this applicant did not take the time to show up to present what he wanted, but they went ahead and passed it. So I'm just asking you guys, this should really, you know, table this again until the MAPC he goes to the MAPC and says what he wants because usually at the pre meeting, there's probably two or three of the MAPC commissioners there. The rest of them just showed up and there was no discussion, none at all, and they passed it. It's not the right way that we need to start doing things.

So I ask you guys if you can table this and then have the applicant come back to the MAC MAPC meeting next week, and then go ahead and present it, and then have it come back with three readings. I think that's only fair to us. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else in the audience with comments? Yes, sir. If you would, please come forward, state your name and address.

Nicholas Almond, 2420 Jude's Way. I'm the president of Klaus Property Management. I want to, apologize to missus Lack. I do work a full time job, as an electrician. Some days, I do have to work late. I've spoken with, mister Anik very closely on this project, and he knows my intentions are very good on the rezoning for this property.

Thank you very much. Anybody else in the audience? I don't see any. That will now move on to its next reading. Now we'll move on to item seven. These are items on unfinished business. These are ordinances on the second reading. The first ordinance is twenty six zero zero four.

An ordinance to amend chapter one seventeen known as the zoning ordinance providing for changes in zoning boundaries from r one to r s seven for property located at 1306 Charles Drive as requested by Weston Wagner.

Any discussion by council? Anyone in council chambers? I don't see any as well, so that'll move on to its next reading. Now we'll move on to ordinances on the third reading, and these ordinances, will be voted on by council Tyatt. Ordinance twenty six zero zero one.

Inordinate to amend chapter one seventeen article three known as the zoning ordinance of the city of Jonesboro, Arkansas providing for change in zone zoning boundaries from r one single family medium density district to c three general commercial district for property located at 2620 Alexander Jonesboro, Arkansas as requested by Paula Thompson.

Move to adopt. Second.

We do have a motion on the floor. Any discussion by counsel? Is this the one that needs an amendment? Yep.

We're

gonna go forward with that. Yeah. Okay.

Yes. I'm Jim Grambling, Grambling Law Firm, 2500 Alexander Drive on behalf of the applicant. I sent an Email to everybody but there are a couple of revisions to this ordinance that I sent circulated yesterday. One of them is simply correction at the MAPC. They part of their approval was that the 25 foot buffer between the property and any residential property remain untouched and that didn't make its way into the ordinance.

So, I added that. We also met with the neighbors, miss Rogers and her husband are here, about their concerns. They had a list of several limited use overlay exclusions. And I spoke with my clients and they agreed to seven of those, so that's included in the revision. And finally, we agreed to dedicate a portion of the property in the Southeast quadrant or part of the property to green space except for ingress, egress.

So, that keeps a lot of green space there between any possible future development and the neighbors and I believe miss Rogers can correct me if I'm wrong but I think everybody's on board. I I have as I've said in my email to you all, I think that, you know, my folks have gone out of their way, and I think they've done a good job trying to meet with the neighbors and and get this squared away. They would really like to not have additional delay because of that. I think the council has the power to move to spin the rules and go ahead and vote on this tonight. But that's what I would request.

It's up to y'all though. Happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you Mr. Grambling. Carol, do we have a significant Well,

mean, going from a rezoning to a rezoning with no UO is is not always a significant change. I think it this is definitely more restrictive than what was approved by MAPC. My biggest concern, Jim, is when I got a chance to read your ordinances, I don't know how a council member's gonna make a motion to make all of these changes from what the first ordinance it's significantly different. I'm not saying that it's not different in what it does. It's different in how it reads because you added all the property descriptions that were not in the original ordinance you submitted and then you added all of the because you submitted the original ordinance. Right?

I did not.

Where did it come from?

I'm not sure. That's before I was retained.

Well, think that typically the city doesn't draft those, so it had to be submitted by the applicant. Right? So, that's my only concern is I'm I don't know what the motion will be other than to remove the ordinance that as it exists in Legisstar and replace it with this ordinance.

There would be an additional cost for publication because it's much much longer. This ordinance hasn't been published.

Well, I mean

I understand the amendment for the LUO. I

would just add that the the only thing that putting a legal a legal description isn't a substantial change. That just makes it more clear. This is just saying this is what the property. Every ordinance that I've submitted in all my rezonings has included legal description. It just so happens that this one is meets and bounds and not lot three, block four.

Right. But it also adds a whole section three that was not published.

Sure. No. Absolutely. And that's why I'm saying I think the council, if they are so inclined, has the power to suspend the rules

And and they do.

Vote on this.

I'm just saying that the the motion may not be to amend. The motion may have to be to Replace. Replace because this is I mean, I guess if if one of you is talented enough to make a motion to go section by section to remove what's here and replace it with what's here, you could do that. Do you see what I'm saying? It's just a lot. Yeah. The cleaner motion might be to remove with the ordinance that's pending and replace it with this and keep the same ordinance number, and then we discuss whether it has to how you move forward today. But the first motion needs to be to get this version of the ordinance on the on the record as what you voting on. Does that make sense?

And everyone should have a copy of what you sent. If you'll look down at your screen, you'll see what the original was.

I'm certainly not blaming Jim. I'm saying because he didn't submit the first one, but it did submitted by the applicant.

So if a motion is made this evening to replace the ordinance, would it be on third reading at the next, can we make it be on

third reading? I mean, counsel he's correct. You have the authority to suspend those rules and do and vote on it tonight should you choose to. I mean, you always have the ability to suspend the rules and vote. My recommendation is probably that you keep it on third reading but you have the authority to do whatever y'all decide as a council. Mayor, I'll move. And I know they're making

the Withdraw my motion to adopt.

Second it. I'll make the motion to replace the revised ordinance, have the revised ordinance replace the current ordinance.

I'll second that.

Vote on that first.

All right. Counselor, we understand. Okay, all right. If would you please, I don't think we're gonna cast just voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I move to adopt. Second. All right. We do have a motion to adopt. Discussion by counsel? Anyone in counsel chambers? Anyone in counsel chambers? I don't see any.

To clarify, you're voting on it tonight and not holding it. Okay.

That is correct. That's with the new changes. Please cast your ballot. Right, and that does carry.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim. Next council move on to ordinance twenty six zero zero two.

An ordinance for the approval of a private club permit for Monarcha's Mexican Restaurant LLC.

Move to a dock. Second. Do we have motion and a second? Any discussion by counsel? Anyone in counsel chambers? If you would state your name and address.

Yes, my name is Scott Hunter of the Hunter Law Firm, 514 West Washington Avenue. I'm here representing Monarchas. It's a Mexican restaurant in Elk Park that's currently in business, and we're here asking for private club permit and I'm just here to answer any questions, concerns that any of y'all might have.

Questions? All right. Thank you, Mr. Hunter. Appreciate it. Anyone else in the board. Ask ask

to

6333 Mayor, council members, been a while since I've been here. I'm asking you to not grant the two alcohol can I can I address both of these at the same time? Is that okay to do?

No, sir. We'll stay with this one.

So this one will be Manarcus that I'll be addressing. Okay. Not not to grant it. I'm asking you not to grant this permit to Manarcus Mexican restaurant. I'm not asking you to deny it.

I'm asking you not to grant it. If no council member makes a motion to approve the this permit, the applications cannot proceed. There is no state law that compels a local official to sponsor or move an ordinance they do not support. Inaction is generally not a deniable act in a way that triggers civil rights litigation as long as the council isn't violating specific constitutional protections such as denying one applicant based on race while granting another. If no council member makes a motion to grant a permit, then the request dies on the spot.

This is referred to as procedural death. Therefore, regardless of what you have been led to believe by attorneys representing permit applicants in the past, they cannot be sued. The city council cannot be sued for not granting a permit. Not denying it, but not granting it. One criteria the ABC board uses when deciding a permit application is whether an area is adequately served with alcohol outlets.

With 70 to 80 places to drink and alcohol in Jonesboro, there's no way on earth that this area is not adequately served. The ABC board never grants or denies a permit, never, without having to give the reason for their decision. This is called findings of fact. If a state level regulatory body is required to provide findings of fact for their decisions, a local council, which is directly elected by the people, should be held to an even higher standard of transparency. Therefore, I formally request that any motion made on this permit as well as any other future permits include a mandatory statement of fact.

If a if a this means if a council member makes a motion to grant, they must they must explain why they believe the economic or social benefits of these permits outweigh the specific dry designation voted on by the citizens. This practice ensures accountability, allows for appellate review, and provides a clear official record of the proceedings. Specific findings ensure the decision maker actually considered the evidence rather than acting in an arbitrary or capricious manner. Mayor Copenhagen, as presiding officer in this council, I believe it is your responsibility to ensure that this is what I think. I may be wrong, but I believe it's your responsibility to ensure that the council member who makes a motion, whether it's to deny or grant a permit, gives their find findings of facts for the motion.

Apparently, this responsibility has been neglected or ignored in past council meetings. Now I've got some other things here, but I'm gonna just keep it up. I'm not sure how my time's running. But to to reflect reflect the will of the people, this council does not need to grant this alcohol permit. Don't deny deny it. It. Just don't grant it. This is your right. This is also a matter of responsibility. Where does your responsibility lie?

Is it to the people who you represent as elected officials or to someone wanting to make money from selling a poison? And I and the WHO and these organizations consider it poisonous. It's not me saying it's poisonous. It's these organizations. So so are someone wanting to make money from selling poison. Again, don't deny. Just don't grant. Thank you. Any questions?

Okay. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in the audience? Yes, sir. If you would please come forward, state your name and address, and don't be redundant.

James Owen Hines, 508 Ridgecrest. And he's already said it, so we'll just say amen to that and move on. You all do know that the alcohol beverage control board cannot grant a permit unless you have voted to grant it. A lot of times people want to pass the responsibility for

against this. Anyone else in the audience? I don't see any. Counsel, if you would, please go ahead and cast your ballot. There was a motion.

I already made the motion.

Yeah, he made motion. Yeah, because we already had the council discussion. All right, if you would please cast your ballot. And that ordinance does carry. Now we'll move on to twenty six thousand and three.

Ordinance for the approval of a private club permit for Walk On Sports Bistro.

Second. Do you have motion and second? Any discussion with counsel? I don't see any. Anyone? Counsel Chambers? Hunter?

Scott Hunter of the Hunter Law Firm, five fourteen West Washington Avenue, once again to answer any of y'all's questions or concerns.

Questions or concerns? I don't see any. Anyone in the audience? Thank you, Mr. Hunter. If you would please come forward, state your name and address.

Bob Hezra, 7096 CR 323. Just I pose this for the exact same reasons that I gave you a while ago.

Thank you, Bob. All right, anyone else in the audience? Yes, sir, please come forward and state your name and address.

James Owen Hines, 508 Ridgecrest. Assume everybody in here knows what Alexander Drive is, that it is the service road for pretty much for I-five 55. Folks, that thing is a mess already. And it's near what State Farm a few years back determined was the worst, most dangerous intersection outside of in Arkansas, outside of the city of Little Rock. We don't need to make the things there any worse.

Thank you for your comments. Yes sir, Mr. Hunter.

Just a correction, the address is actually 2809 East Highland Drive. It's not on Alexander. It's where Baird Auto Group used to be. Just a clarification.

Was that again, Scotty?

2809 East Highland Drive.

Yeah,

the ordinance is correct. All right, other people in the audience? I don't see any. If you would please go ahead and cast your ballot. That ordinance does carry. Next we'll move on to the mayor's report. Council, bear with me. Right. As this year's state of the city approaches, I know many remember last year's destination one hundred thousand theme. The idea isn't to purposely grow Jonesboro to a 100 k.

Jonesboro is growing. In ten and eleven years or twelve years, Jonesboro will be a population of 100 k. This is the reality we're facing, and we're working to prepare our city for that increased growth. As a part of the planning for Jonesboro's expected population of 100 k, we're building blueprints. Plan Jonesboro kicked off on Thursday, February 12 at Earl Bell Community Center with over a 120 participants from Jonesboro community.

It was a well attended event, had great conversations and input received through interactive booths. Thanks to JPD, DARE, and Centennial Bank for providing and cooking burgers, chips, drinks, and desserts for attendees, and planning communications department for their work and effort and hosting the event conjunction with DPZ and Crafton Tall, as well as providing giveaways for attendees. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming meetings around the community coming soon. And in the meantime, if you couldn't participate in the kickoff event, please visit the website. It went live the evening of the event and will remain open for community members to visit.

Take the survey and map your ideas on an interactive map. Make your voice heard in a constructive way that keeps Jonesboro moving forward. Now, for those I saw many city council, I would hope others would participate as this process continues to move forward. We're gonna be having many of the meetings in houses of worship so we can get a lot of other individuals involved in the process. We continue moving forward with the new jet bus shelters.

You may have seen the progress update shared February 4 as 24 of the new 45 bus shelters have been installed through the Federal Transit Administration awarded the FY21 buses and facilities grant in 2021. We accepted it in 2024. Funding takes time, but the installation of the upgraded bus shelters is being executed quickly. Of course, the project was impacted by the snow and ice we received, but progress is picking right up right now. The installation of the shelters is just the start of keeping an eye on the upgrades coming.

The jet department has been working hard for the new improved services. Hats off to our parks department. Did you see the video, Jim, with the update on the icebreaker volleyball tournament during February 7 weekend? With the spring around the corner, youth sports are kicking off with everything from cheer, football, soccer, and rugby. Not only that, but progress also continues and be made at the new park on the East Side of town.

We hope to have some updated renderings to share with you all very soon. Another update to mention, many of you know, is the city's incinerator has been down for some time. We think that we may have found a company who may have qualified to fix it. As spring cleaning and yard work will pick up, the weather gets warmer, we want to encourage you to use paper bags for yard waste. Due to ADEQ requirements, yard waste cannot go to the landfill, which is why we must have separate pickups for yard waste versus regular trash.

Trash. Obviously, we cannot burn plastic bags, so please take advantage of the free paper bags handed out at the neighborhood cleanups by Keep Jonesboro Beautiful. After evaluating the neighborhood cleanup events last year, we modified this year's calendar in 2026 with a blend of six neighborhood cleanups, our most utilized locations and dates, and we're offering five community cleanups at the city, Lacey Park location on the alternative months. A calendar for 2026 cleanups available is already circulating with a plan very much this year. On Saturday, February 7, we had a community cleanup at Lacey Allocation location, we collected 2.78 tons of junk with an additional 22 tons of trash collected through the bulky junk drop off that we currently have.

In other news, E911 is in the process of evaluating or reevaluating our tornado siren locations to best serve our residents. With consideration of Jonesboro's population growth and new developments within the community, we're working to move tornado sirens to different locations to best all areas with minimal cost. Some of you may have seen JPD's 2025 crime stats report. Good job, chief. Is he still here?

There he is. Thank you. Despite population growth, crime numbers for 2025 have decreased. Congrats to JPD, and thank you counsel for providing necessary tools to keep Jonesboro safe, and we continue every day to make that There are a lot of upcoming events within the city, and I want to remind everyone that the kickoff of the Citizens Police Academy, a fourteen week learning experience for citizens to learn about JPD's policies, services, and the real world operations is coming up on February 26. And I think you just have a few spots left.

Is that correct? Okay. Also, sign up for the Citizens Fire Academy. It's open March 6, beginning March 16 through May 11. This program is Monday evening from six to nine at the JFD training site. Learn firsthand how firefighters train, respond and serve our community. How is that, chief? He's over in the corner. I can't see him. Awesome.

Q. Q. Q. Q. Battle on February 28 this year, a city of Jonesboro representative will be Cliff Nash, our traffic operations manager.

So join in the free event to help Cliff and cheer him on in support raising funds for the FOA. I counsel on every organizational enterprise and endeavor teamwork and attitude determining factors of success. That's true of our city government as well. We serve the people of Jonesboro as a whole and I expect that we serve them together as a team working together, the mayor and city council. I've listened to criticism and I've channeled that into constructive, positive actions to improve my administration's communication and priorities.

In a letter I sent to you on Friday, I outlined those initiatives. Listen, there's a lot to run-in the city of Jonesboro, the physical size and population of Jonesboro. You heard this evening, we have 600 employees plus, over 80,000,000 to serve the citizens. These priorities for the council and mayor are important, things like public safety, infrastructure, transportation, business attraction, and retention. Citizens expect us to spend our time on these priorities, and they expect to see our progress and the results.

In closing, I have two more notes to add. Congratulations on order for the city February employee of the month, Christy Wall. Many of you know her. She's one of a kind. The finance manager for the finance department. She even braved the snow and ice storm while offices were closed to ensure payroll went out right on time. That's the dedication we see daily. We're grateful for First Security Bank for sponsoring the salute to the city award each month. On behalf of the city of Jonesboro, want to congratulate Donna Malone, our communications director, as she prepares for her retirement. Her last day will be March 4.

It doesn't seem possible that those years have passed. But I want to personally thank Donna for her commitment. This is going to be her second retirement. So congratulations to her. And I appreciate her dedication and service to the city. And we wish her the very best in her well earned retirement. So as we say, Jonesboro always moving, and that's the fact. We are on the move. And I'm proud that all of our city employees, they do and they serve our community. Let us continue to work together moving in the same direction to benefit residents of our community. Thank you for allowing me that time. Next we'll move on to city council reports.

Ms. Porter? Thank you. Mr. Emerson?

Only thing that I have is that early voting open today so I encourage everybody to get out and vote. Thank you.

Doctor. Charles Coleman? Williams? Mr. Gibson?

Not at this time.

Mr. McClain?

Just real quick, Mayor, I appreciate you touching on the email you sent out just talking about the relationship with the council But also, I have several questions regarding some of the stuff that's going on. I emailed you about and I think as you said, our citizens do expect us to work together, but they also expect us to have some transparency, accountability. And part of that, some of the questions that have been raised for me or to me and even that I have, I would love an answer because as a council member and as a council I believe we should know if there are any other allegations of department heads maybe taking money or have been paid in cash? And also what have we done with that information? I also would like to know when we visited with them, what do we find out?

Did they tell us they could do anything or not? But I would like some answers to some of these questions that I think I feel like will help us again have an open relationship, but then at the same time restore the trust that the public will have in us.

Work on that, thank you. You got my answers to that. It was on the email attached to them.

I didn't see them. You didn't see them?

Yeah, I attached

them. Was one, well you say you're gonna get the answers. That was the only

thing I got. I haven't

got anything else. Okay, yeah I did attach. That's my outlook and send that again to you. I have answered those questions. I sent it to the email I sent out on Friday. So if that attachment's in there, councilman let me know. Obviously you didn't get it. So I'll send it to you. I've got answers for that. You. You.

Mr. Haffner.

Yes, I just want clear up something that was in the, it was a letter to the editor on February 4. It mentioned that the Jonesboro AEP commission financials weren't audited and I just wanted to clear up that they are audited and the AEP financials are considered a special revenue source of the city and they're included in the city's legislative audit every year. And then furthermore, with the recent coordination of financing arranged for the Ridge Athletic Center, separate audits were authorized by the A and P Commission for calendar years twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. These audit reports, including the related notes to the financial statements are filed on the CD's CD's website. You can go to the departments under finance and you'll see on the left side of the screen where it says financials, audits, budgets, etcetera.

So just wanted to clear up that the A and P commission financials are audited every year.

That's all I've got. Thank you, Mr. Hafner. Thank you.

Mr. Miller.

No, thank you.

Mr. Street.

I just want to comment on Make A Wish was a wonderful success this year, this last Friday. Hundreds and hundreds of volunteers raised well over $500,000 and it just shows what a big heart Jonesboro Northeast Arkansas has and wonderful people who go above and beyond to make life quality of life here fantastic. That's all I've got. There. Brian, do you want to

make a comment as well?

Sure. I almost said this during the resolution regarding the street lights that we purchased for downtown. You know, when we're gathering our CDBG information, there are surveys that go out every year. And this is kind of a testament to why public input is important. I think it was two years ago we did that same survey and 81% of people in Jonesboro said that they felt like they needed any more street lighting. You know, think that the West End neighborhood kind of led the way on on that as far as showing how important it is to light up your neighborhoods. And so that's what we strive to do. I say all that because giving public input is important. We had the Plain Jonesboro meeting the other day. We're lucky that 01/2025, 01/2030 people showed up.

We're going to have more those events and I just can't stress to the public how important it is to come to those events. Give your opinions because that shapes how we recommend dollars be spent and how you approve dollars be spent. I think there was a CDBG meeting last week. Chris, how many people showed up? Yes.

Zero. So zero people showed up to a public event that helps direct us in how we appropriate city dollars to the city in the future. And luckily, we have some older survey information to help kind of direct what we wanted to do. But it's just it's absolutely critical that we have a once in a lifetime or for once and a half a lifetime opportunity as we're going through this master growth plan to really shape what the city looks like over the next ten to twenty to thirty years. And I've heard, you know, some comments that we need to fix our problems today.

Well, you've got to address problems today and down the road, or you're never going to get there. And so one way we do that is everybody get involved, come to these public meetings, give your opportunity, your input, and help be a part of a better Jonesboro tomorrow and in the future. So that's all I got.

All right, that's the end of the council comments. Now move on to public comments. They are limited to five minutes and individual up to fifteen minutes. Anyone in the audience? Yes, sir. If you would please come forward, state your name and address.

James Owen Hines, 508 Ridgecrest. And maybe this would have been better at the public service meeting at 04:30, but I didn't know that was gonna happen. And it's not on the agenda, so we'll address it now. There is something the city of Jonesboro really needs. All of you know what an energy audit is, right? Know, where they come out to your house and if you're going talk to.

To to you the

talk apparently, that's just not available in Jonesboro. Some of says they in the Jonesboro area, they partner with Entergy. The problem is the only people that receive can receive those services are Entergy. Cheap. And this is one of the few times I I hate to say I'm on city water and light.

Usually, I'm very happy about that. But we need somebody and I had some people and say, here's a list of things that you can do to make your house more energy efficient. But if you don't know which ones they are, you'd might be cheaper just tear your house down, build a whole new house. Because that can run into lots of thousands of dollars and we need to have somebody to do that. And I'm not saying necessarily totally free, but at a reasonable price that people who have houses can can get it done and see what they need to do.

And that helps a lot of ways, you know. We won't be wasting as much energy. We'll have our poor people, in fact all of us will have cheaper energy bills. So we need to look at seeing get somebody to do that.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else in the audience? I don't see any, we'll move on. Yes, If you would come forward. Mr. Stearns?

Don't know if I'm a citizen or employee right now. Jim Stearns, 1317 Bennett Drive. I just want to give you a quick update of some park stuff. I feel you guys need to hear this on a regular basis. So first thing, I have some great news. Gotta gotta recognize my pool manager, Darion Wyndham. We had recently had our health inspection for the youth center pool. And I spoke with the health inspector, and he made a comment that this was in the best shape the youth center has been in the five years the last five years that he has actually come out and inspected for us. Just wanna publicly recognize Darien for doing such a great job. We're trying to attract great leaders to parks that can own their spots and do a good job, and and Darren's a great example of that.

Secondly, I gotta recognize Billy Steve Cliff out of Southside Softball. Recently, Terry Dancer sent us a letter stating that they do over a 100 senior games in the morning during the softball season and he complimented Billy Steve for the great work that he does at Southside and having those facilities ready play on a regular basis. So I wanted to definitely shout out and recognize those two employees for doing exemplary job in parks for us. Real quick, the Disciple Drive project is coming along. We're about the 60% mark now.

I just wanted you all know in the master plan that we're approaching some success and seeing some progress in that part. The shared use connectivity trails, we're close to having a shared use trail from Arkansas State all the way to G Street. And there's just a few little items to have that complete. So we're making really good progress in a master park plan. And as you guys know, we're about to be busy in sports, and I'll be real quick with this.

We have over 2,000 kids signed up right now for youth sports. We have 875 starting signed up for basketball. Games begin this Saturday, February 21. Junior High Softball League and a Junior High Soccer League, both of those has 28 teams and 32 teams respectively. And they started playing and practicing this week, field weather permitting. Softball first tournament is February 28. That's a tournament that we host. Soccer games begin in April. Rug begins begins in April. Football has a 120 sign up right now.

They begin in April. And volleyball begins April 27 with a 111 signed up right now with a month left. So the state of use sports just to to rest your minds at ease about that. We're taking care of the kids in Jonesboro. And I just want a quick correction. The video was for the We Care Volleyball Tournament, not the Icebreaker Tournament. Just want to make sure I let you know that I apologize on that info I got to you. So other than that, I really appreciate your support and we're looking forward to completing some more master project plans, master park plans here in the near future.

Thank you, Jim, for your comments. And counsel, before we leave and I make the motion for adjournment, I do want to bring you up to date a little bit. We've been provided an initial proposal and I'll get that to you on the possibility of the first United Methodist Church facility. Maybe it could be used possibly for potential police station in the city of Jonesboro. But I wanted to make you all aware of that.

I'll be getting you the draft of that document so you'll have time to look over it. That way it'll provide you the questions, and you can have questions as we move through that process. Again, it's just the beginning phase. I want to make counsel aware, so everybody, can have the same input on this and it might be an opportunity for us to really look at, but that's gonna be your decision. So next we'll move on to item 11. That's adjournment.

Move. Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?